2024 Student Symposium Winners

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2024 Student Symposium who were announced at the Awards Ceremony on April 2, 2024! Please see the list of competition winners below.

College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Oral Presentations

Undergraduate Winner

  • Anthony Amatucci, Political Science and Economics
    • Project Title: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Textile Disposal Ban: At the Intersection of Fast Fashion and Sustainability
    • Faculty Advisor: Aaron Smith-Walter
    • Video:

Graduate Winner

  • Team: Golnar Fotouhi, Susannah Marcucci, & Lugyi No, Research and Evaluation in Education
    • Project Title: International student acculturation: Stressors and sources of support
    • Faculty Advisor: Johanna Tigert
    • Video:

Poster Presentations

Undergraduate Winner
  • Sohana Hasan, English
    • Project Title: Barriers and Balancing Acts: Building Inclusive Campuses for International Student Parents
    • Faculty Advisor: Jenna Vinson

Graduate Winner

  • Rachel Ziminski, Leadership in Education
    • Project Title: Implementing Encouragement in Engineering Education for Retaining Underrepresented Students
    • Faculty Advisor: Yanfen Li

Fan Favorite

  • Fahad Alden, Media, Minor in Theatre Arts
    • Project Title: Emotional Navigation in Theatre
    • Faculty Advisor: Shelley Barish
    • Video:

Francis College of Engineering

Oral Presentations

Undergraduate Winner

  • Esra Eisa, Mechanical Engineering
    • Project Title: Investigating the K-20 STEM Pipeline for Women in Sudan
    • Faculty Advisor: Yanfen Li
    • Video:

Graduate Winner

  • Rebecca Olanrewaju, Plastics Engineering
    • Project Title: Thermoplastic Composites with Shape Multiplying Elements
    • Faculty Advisor: David Kazmer
    • Video:

Poster Presentations

Undergraduate Winners

  • Hamza Khan, Mechanical Engineering
    • Project Title: Design of Compact Radar Range Work Platform to Facilitate Radar Cross Section (RCS) Data Acquisition
    • Faculty Advisor: Guy DeMartinis and Thomas Horgan
  • Alex Ryzi, Civil Engineering
    • Project Title: Quantitative Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load in Wastewater Using Acoustic Wave Micropillar Biosensors
    • Faculty Advisor: Professor Sheree Pagsuyoin

Graduate Winner

  • Katie Huang, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology
    • Project Title: Predicting New Indications for Drugs Based on Similarity in Gene Signatures
    • Faculty Advisor: Rachel Melamed

Fan Favorite

  • Jack Cimorelli, Mechanical Engineering
    • Project Title: Wind Energy and Hydrogen Energy Storage System Modeling for Navy Microgrids
    • Faculty Advisor: Christopher Niezrecki, Xinfang Jin, and David Willis
    • Video:

Kennedy College of Sciences

Oral Presentations

Undergraduate Winner

  • Santana Wright, Health Physics
    • Project Title: Deep-Learning-Based Cell Segmentation for Rapid Optical Cytology of Thyroid Cancer
    • Faculty Advisor: Anna Yaroslavsky
    • Video:

Graduate Winner

  • Dylan Shuster, Chemistry - Sustainable Track
    • Project Title: Next Generation Water Filtration Targeting Water Pollutants with Tailored Polymer Nanogels
    • Faculty Advisor: James Reuther
    • Video:

Poster Presentations

Undergraduate Winner

  • Nicholas Melisi, Biology
    • Project Title: Urinary Titin N-Fragment as an Indicator for Recovery from Exercise Induced Damage
    • Faculty Advisor: Matthew Gage

Graduate Winner

  • Julia McDonough, Biological Sciences
    • Project Title: DNA methylation as a mechanism of carryover effects in response to climate change stressors in eastern oysters
    • Faculty Advisor: Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn

Fan Favorite

  • Nicholas LaFave, Biological Sciences (MS)
    • Project Title: SDS-PAGE reveals diversity in myosin isoform expression of sciuromorph jaw muscles
    • Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey Moore
    • Video:

Manning School of Business

Oral Presentations

Undergraduate Winners

  • Team: Sarah Curley, Business Administration - Accounting and Isabelle Giles, Business Administration - Accounting
    • Project Title: An Analysis of the Impact of Community Activities on College Experience
    • Faculty Advisor: Elise Magnant and Laura Christianson
    • Video:

Graduate Winner

  • Esi Adeborna, Management Information Systems
    • Project Title: Implementing Gamification in ERPs
    • Faculty Advisor: Luvai Motiwalla
    • Video:

Poster Presentations

Undergraduate Winners

  • Sudeep Gubbala, Management Information Systems - Analytics & Operations Management
    • Project Title: Optimizing Marketing Resource Investment Strategies Under Distributional Uncertainty
    • Faculty Advisor: Belleh Fontem
  • Ronald Martinez-Paulino, Business Administration
    • Project Title: Carbon Emissions and Corporate Financing
    • Faculty Advisor: Hieu Phan

Graduate Winner

  • Yadi Wang, Ph.D. in Business Administration, Finance
    • Project Title: Managing Less Redeployable Assets Through Better Employee Treatment
    • Faculty Advisor: Saira Latif

Fan Favorite

  • Lani Faith Gacula, Entrepreneurship
    • Project Title: Coloring Outside the Lines! Entrepreneurial Identity of Female Minorities in the Digital Age
    • Faculty Advisor: Michael Obal
    • Video:

Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences

Oral Presentations

Undergraduate Winner

  • Team: Jack Callahan, Public Health and Elliot Johnson, Masters - Public Health
    • Project Title: Addressing Social Determinants in Lawrence, MA: A Preliminary Evaluation of the DyeWorks Affordable Housing Project
    • Faculty Advisor: Sabrina E. Noel
    • Video:

Graduate Winner

  • Lisa Merrill, Public Health, Epidemiology
    • Project Title: The Gut Microbiome, Bone Material Strength, and Diet in Puerto Rican Adults
    • Faculty Advisor: Kelsey Mangano
    • Video:

Poster Presentations

Undergraduate Winner

  • Andrew Grant, Exercise Science
    • Project Title: Reactive Strength Index Reliability Among Different Athlete Populations: A Review of Literature
    • Faculty Advisor: David Cornell

Graduate Winners

  • Ijebusonma Agundu, Master of Public Health - Social & Behavioral Sciences
    • Project Title: Institutional Intervention Practices in Reducing Cholera Outbreaks of rural communities in Nigeria
    • Faculty Advisor: Dr Tim Ford
  • Serena Burkinshaw, Applied Biomedical Sciences
    • Project Title: Evaluating the Efficacy of Safer Disinfection Products using MS2 Bacteriophage
    • Faculty Advisor: Alicia McCarthy

Fan Favorite

  • Fan Chen, ScD in Epidemiology
    • Project Title: Associations of Serum Magnesium with Brain Morphology and Cognitive Function, and Modification by Diabetes and Hypertension in Puerto Rican Adults
    • Faculty Advisors: Katherine Tucker
    • Video: